The stars of Hollywood shine brightly in Los Angeles, but it is the city's world-famous sunshine that has catapulted the City of Angels atop the list of America's most solar-friendly cities.

That's good news for IBEW electricians, who have embraced the solar boom and its opportunities for steady, abundant work as Southern California works to harness the sun's energy.

"Our members have played a central role in helping L.A. rise to the top of U.S. cities embracing solar energy," said International President Lonnie R. Stephenson. "Solar construction continues to be a huge source of new work for our members in Southern California and all across North America, and we're proud to be on the leading edge of the clean energy revolution."

According to a new report from the Environment America Research and Policy Center, Los Angeles now has the most installed solar power of any city in U.S. And part of what pushed it to the No. 1 spot was an IBEW-installed 2.21-megawatt solar installation on the rooftop of the Los Angeles Convention Center.

It took about six months for IBEW members, working for signatory contractor CSI Electric, to affix the array's more than 6,000 panels to the top of the center's South Hall. The center is almost always in use, so a major challenge was coordinating the installation to work around the various events taking place inside with minimum disruption.

The installation is expected to cover about 17 percent of the convention center's annual energy needs — about 3.4 million kilowatt hours per year.

"Every investment we make in solar is an investment in the health and well-being of Angelenos today and for years to come," said Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti in an April press release.

The "Shining Cities 2018" report found that Los Angeles has 349.3 total megawatts of installed solar, enough to power an estimated 82,500 homes.

The nearby Westmont project, completed last summer near the Port of Los Angeles, found dozens of IBEW members with signatory contractor Baker Electric Solar working alongside union roofers and carpenters to install nearly 50,000 photovoltaic panels atop a cluster of distribution center warehouses on Westmont Drive in the San Pedro community. Completed, the array covers an area roughly the size of 50 football fields.